Case of the Nutty Blond

On the principles that pride goes before destruction and that bragging about oneself is best left to others, I do not really intend to use this blog as a showcase for my art… much. But today’s post will be an exception. My latest area of recreational study has been the art of manga/anime. If you have to study something to keep you occupied, I would suggest it be something with as many interesting characteristics as anime/manga. I have always been curious and fascinated with the anime style, but I have only spent about a year studying it as an art form and how to draw it and must admit I am terribly behind. All I have seen, aside from very quick clips from shows on TV, are Porco Rosso, Final Fantasy Advent Children, and Howl’s Moving Castle.

This picture is actually a scene from a book that is not yet published… ok, so it’s not even finished but the currently anonoymous author is wonderful and we are hoping it will soon be published with this and many more beautiful (and better) pictures in it! The author and I both agreed that the art of the story needed to be manga-esque, but I knew nothing about the style of art, and certainly not how to draw it. It is because of this challenge that my interest in anime grew from curiosity to observation and application.

I never really understood why I was drawn to anime until I started to draw it myself, and I think that it is the energy and dynamic quality that is always present. Nothing is still. The characters themselves are always moving, even if it is the ever-present breeze that is playing with their flowing locks of hair. Even when they are just standing, you can read their thoughts in their shoulders, the subtle movement of their mouth or eyebrows, or even the color of the background. If it is a somber, brooding moment, the colors are deep grays and blues; if it’s happy, then the colors cannot seem to get brighter, like the flower garden in Howl.

When the characters are sad, they are devastated; when they are happy, they are ecstatic; when they are pissed, Katie bar the door. The characters are also often what we wish we could be, and I think that they are the main reason that anime and manga appeal to my nerd class because no one messes with them. They are beautiful and powerful and timeless. For example in Advent Children, the character Vincent (left) seems aged and wise, but the fair lines on his cheeks and the clarity of his eyes suggests an eternal youth. Besides being both old and young, the characters can be beautiful, even to both genders at the same time. Cloud, for example, has a lithe build and feminine face. It is a curious paradox of the art that he is almost as completely beautiful-since he is smooth and strong (think Michelangelo's David)- as Vincent is able to be both old and young.

The other appeal about anime is how it allows us to escape from this world and its often harsh realities so easily. The absurd is no big deal; you can have blue hair, throw someone from mid-air without losing momentum, randomly change into a pig, have magic powers, have three objects fall at different speeds from a building, wield a massive sword, have a tail or strange ears, or travel around in vehicles that defy all laws of work and mass, be it a motorcycle, house, or spaceship. Reality need not apply. The best way I can think of explaining this fully is when I was watching Howl’s Moving Castle, and after seeing the character float over rooftops, undergo a spell, be followed by creepy black blobs, meet a scarecrow that hops around and watch a strange metal house walk on chicken leg, my boyfriend tells me that the only thing he can’t explain is where the scarecrow found a walking cane. Never mind the flying and magic, it’s the cane that doesn’t make sense to a seasoned anime connoisseur. Ok sure whatever; anything goes.

But that is where one needs to be careful with any kind of fantasy and escapism. Hard as it often is, we still live in this world. As nice as vacations are, we have a duty to others here, especially as Christians, and I am very much wasting it if I am never living here.

Another caution is the fact that anime and manga are of Japanese origin, and over there nudity and overt sexuality are no big deal. Personally, I think human sexuality is a beautiful thing, but it is so easily twisted and can be dangerous when put into the hands of too young of kids. Also, it occured to me that since the appeal of the characters is not only without age but can also be transgender it could encourage those… um, deviant-types from the Law & Order: SVU episodes. (Was it only me who noticed that Sephiroth looked ready for a session of S&M, dressed in leather straps?!)

Now I am not saying that this is what happens with anime, but it is something to be aware of, just like it is good to be aware that most of the storylines will probably reference Taoist or New Age worldviews. But the themes in these stories can raise excellent opportunities for us Christians to present the truth; the themes of forgiveness in Porco Rosso and FF: Advent Children, for example.

Above all, it saddens me that when I type in Christian Anime into Google I get more hits for Christian Bale in Howl’s Moving Castle than Christian-themed anime. Anime is not evil; it can’t be, because it is not a spiritual thing, like people are. But anything can be used for good or evil when we touch it; from butter knives to telephones to art. I think it was C.S. Lewis that said that everything in the universe is being claimed and counterclaimed by the spiritual forces. Some Christian circles want to eradicate anime and its Eastern influences, but I think that we should instead recapture it and use it as an art form to glorify God, who is the original Artist and Creator.